If you’ve been following Rep. Michele Bachmann in the news, you’re not alone; the Minnesota Republican has a way of grabbing media attention by doing things like calling for the revival of the McCarthy Hearings or telling her followers to slit their wrists. But Bachmann is hardly the only active member of Congress out there: she has 434 colleagues in the House. If you find Michele Bachmann’s political antics intriguing, you might be interested in following the other, perhaps less theatrical, members of Congress who are most closely allied with her.

The graphic below is a representation of the observed alliances in the 2009 House of Representatives between Michele Bachmann and her 8 closest associates, measured through cosponsorship of the 4,412 House Resolutions (“H.R.” bills) introduced in 2009. Each number next to an arrow from Representative A to Representative B indicates how many of the bills principally sponsored (that is, authored) by Representative A were cosponsored (that is, supported) by Representative B.

The most intense legislative relationship Rep. Bachmann has with any of her fellow 434 House members is with Representative Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee. Bachmann and Blackburn have jointly supported 12 bills, and each Representative has cosponsored 6 bills that were introduced by the other, making this a relationship of equals. On the other hand, Bachmann is much more of a dominant leader in her relationship with Doug Lamborn of Colorado; Lamborn has thrown his support behind 6 of Bachmann’s bills, while she has only thrown her support behind 1 bill authored by Lamborn. The closest Michele Bachmann comes to being a follower is in her relationships with Steve King, Todd Tiahrt and John Kline; in each relationship she supports one more of their bills than they support of hers.

When compared to the rest of the House of Representatives, these closest allies of Michele Bachmann stand out in a few ways. All are Republicans, but they are not just Republicans; each is among the most conservative members of the House of Representatives. Only one of Bachmann’s allies hails from her home state; ties of shared ideology are more salient to her than ties of adjacent geography. The number of women in her set of strongest allies is roughly proportional to the share of women in the House (a historical high but still notably-low 17%).

If you would know Michele Bachmann, and if you would like to predict where the Bachmann wing of the House is headed next, watch for movement among the Bachmann Eight.